Danish shipping giant DFDS completed the tests for a rail service suitable for semi-trailers with the r2l system developed by VTG and VEGA. “That means it’s now officially possible to carry non-cranable trailers on our train from Rotterdam to Karsznice, Poland”, said Angelika Knapińska, Head of Sales Operations.
This new connection opens up a new multimodal rail-sea corridor linking Poland with Spain and the UK to volumes that reach Rotterdam largely by road. After reaching the Dutch port (from now also by rail), semi-trailers coming from Karsznice are loaded onto ferries going to the UK ports of Felixstowe and Immingham or to the Spanish port of Vilagarcía de Arousa. “With our proven Poland–UK corridor, and now the new DFDS Rotterdam-Vilagarcía route, we’re expanding access to Poland-Spain & Portugal as well”, Knapińska said on LinkedIn.
VEGA and VTG’s r2l system
The r2l (short for roadrailLink) system consists of a “platform or ramp that terminal cranes and reach stackers can lift vertically onto and off double pocket wagons”. Truck drivers position the semi-trailers onto the r2l platform and drive away. Cranes can then lift the semi-trailers and platform and lay them onto the wagons.
Over the past year or so, a few companies have chosen the railways for their transport operation using the r2l connector, as VEGA calls it. CFL Cargo and VOS Logistics, for example. The former started a service between Luxembourg and Romania, while the latter is now using freight trains to move silo-trailers between Dourges and Venissieux in France.